Any form of exercise is beneficial to your health, but working out with others may give you an added edge.
Do you like exercising, driving, or hiking alone?
Or do you enjoy the syncopated breathing, moving, and toning in a crowded group fitness class?
No matter what type of exercise you prefer, there are no drawbacks to maintaining a healthy level of physical activity, especially since so many Americans adhere to governmental exercise recommendations.
But according to research, if you exercise alone, you might be missing out on some of the health advantages of group exercise.
Workouts in Groups Vs. Solo
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Exercise is already known to have a wide range of advantage's, including enhancing sexual drive, elevating mood and sleep quality, and boosting energy and mental clarity.
In a recent study, researchers investigated whether group exercise could benefit medical students, a high-stress population that could probably benefit from routine exercise. 69 medical students participated in one of the study's three exercise groups.
One group exercised for an additional 30 minutes if desired, in addition to a minimum of once a week's worth of functional fitness training and core strengthening exercises.
Another group included solo exercisers who went to the gym at least twice a week on their own or with up to two partners.
The last group of students only exercised by walking or riding bikes to get where they needed to go.
At the beginning of the study and every four weeks after that, the researchers took mental, physical, and emotional well-being and perceived stress levels from the students.
For these mental health measures, all of the students entered the study at roughly the same level.
Participants in group exercise saw gains in all three facets of quality of life after 12 weeks, as well as a reduction in their stress levels.
Adversely, despite exercising about an hour more per week than group exercisers, solo exercisers only saw improvements in their mental quality of life.
By the end of the study, neither the stress level nor the quality of life had significantly changed for the control group. The study's drawbacks include its small sample size and exclusivity to medical students.
Because students were free to choose their own exercise group, the results could be influenced by physical or psychological differences between group exercisers and solo exercisers.
As a result, care should be taken when interpreting the results.
However, the research makes a compelling case for group exercise. The study appeared in the November issue of the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
Working Out Together
Other studies have looked at the effects of group exercise, specifically exercising in unison, on social bonding, pain tolerance, and athletic performance.
Participants in a 2013 study published in the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology were assigned to rowing machines for 45 minutes of exercise.
After the session, group rowers who had coordinated their movements had a higher pain threshold than solo rowers.
Rowers' ability to tolerate pain increased whether they were rowing with friends or total strangers.
The greater release of endorphins, or "feel good" hormones, thought to result from people becoming more synchronised with one another while exercising may be the cause of the increased tolerance to pain, according to researchers.
Behavioural synchrony is the term used to describe this kind of coordinated motion. Other group activities like play, religious ceremonies, and dancing may also involve it.
Additionally, if you already get along well with the other group members, it might boost your performance.
Rugby players who coordinated their movements while warming up performed better on a subsequent endurance test, according to a 2015 study published in PLoS ONE.
They already belonged to a tight-knit rugby team. According to researchers, their coordinated movements during the warm-up strengthened their already-existing social ties.
According to the researchers, this "may have changed athletes' perceptions of the pain and discomfort associated with fatigue." Participants were able to exert more effort and thus perform better.
So you might be able to harness the power of synchrony when you're surrounded by other cyclists spinning in time to steady beats or CXWORXing like it's a choreographed dance.
Or not.
Different Group Classes Have Different Aims
Paul Estabrook's, PhD, a professor of behavioural health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, found that "exercise context" affects how much exercise affects the way individuals live their lives.
Social interactions, physical benefits, and commitment to exercise. 44 earlier studies comparing the advantages of various exercise contexts were examined by Estabrook's and his colleagues for a review article published in Sport and Exercise Psychology Review in 2006.
The contexts included "true group" classes, where special techniques were used to strengthen social ties among participants; home workouts, either alone or with contact from a health professional; and standard exercise classes.
The biggest advantages came from actual group classes. Regular exercise classes were comparable to at-home exercise with assistance without the added bonding.
Home exercise alone came in last.
The benefits of exercise were generally greater when people had more contact or social support during exercise, whether it came from researchers, medical professionals, or other exercise participants.
According to Estabrook's, group fitness classes "are usually only more effective when they use group dynamics strategies," according to Healthline.
Setting group goals, exchanging feedback, interacting with classmates, engaging in friendly competition, and implementing "activities to help people feel like they are part of something with a sense of distinctiveness" are all examples of this.
This might not be offered in every exercise class.
This isn't typically the case in group fitness classes, according to Estabrook's, where people arrive, follow an instructor, barely interact with one another, and then leave.
Not everyone enjoys spinning, body sculpting, or power yoga classes, despite the potential added benefits.
According to one study, extraverts are more likely than introverts to favour group-based and physically demanding activities.
There's no big surprise there. Being an introvert, I lead group yoga sessions. However, I hardly ever enroll in group classes myself. I like to practise alone at home.
Yoga is about solitude and introspection for me, to use true introverted language.
But for some people, yoga might be more about forming social bonds and a sense of community.
Being active is ultimately healthier for you than becoming sedentary.
Therefore, find a physical activity you enjoy and stick with it, whether it's cramming yourself into a hot fitness class or going on a solo backpacking trip.
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